1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a video printer connectable to a television (TV) receiver, video camera, video cassette recorder, laser disk (LD) player or similar picture signal source for producing a hard copy of a picture fed from the signal source.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a video printer receives an analog video signal in the from of three separated color signals, e.g., red (R), green (G) and blue (B) signals from a picture signal source and transforms it to digital video data. One frame of digital video data is written to a memory and then transferred to a thermal head, one print line at a time. In response, the thermal head prints an image represented by the video data on a paper or similar recording medium. At the same time, the video data stored in the memory are again converted to an analog video signal and sent to a TV monitor (receiver) or similar equipment which uses the video printer in synchronism with synchronizing signals included in a TV signal. Therefore, a person can manipulate the video printer to adjust the quality of the picture to print while watching the picture actually appearing on the TV monitor. In this manner, the video printer is connected between the picture signal source and the TV monitor. A conventional video printer, of course, has video terminals, but it lacks audio terminals.
Specifically, a picture signal source of the kind described generates an audio signal simultaneously with a video signal. However, an audio signal cable for transmitting the audio signal from the signal source has to be directly connected to the TV monitor, by-passing the video printer, since the conventional video printer lacks audio terminals, as mentioned above. Only a video signal cable assigned to the video signal is connected to the TV monitor by way of the video printer.
The video printer has a housing which may be of a size, particularly a width, matching the size of an LD player, video cassette recorder or similar signal source or the size of a TV monitor so as to accommodate all of such equipment in a single rack. However, the problem with the conventional video printer is that a video signal cable and an audio signal cable extending from the signal source have to be respectively connected to the video printer and the TV monitor due to the terminal arrangement described above. Specifically, since the audio signal cable from the signal source has to be connected to the TV monitor over the video printer, the arrangement of the cables is disorderly. Moreover, to use the video printer, it is necessary for the operator to rearrange the cable connection by removing and inserting connectors, resulting in troublesome operations.